"My, you have quite the talent for alchemy," an impressed Roy Mustang said, revealing his presence at the slightly lit mouth of the otherwise nearly pitch black alleyway. He had been attracted to this desolate area of Central City by the reports of alchemical light. Along with reports of the light, there were reports of the end results: reparations to buildings, fountains, and various public facilities, ornamentations added on to otherwise plain and run-down structures, and several other feats that were easily out of reach of many master alchemists' abilities. At the sound of his voice, the finally-caught culprit of these deeds whirled to face him from the alchemical circle that they had been drawing. Covered in dirt, dangerously thin, and in tattered clothes that would make even the poorest man ashamed, the child was the stereotypical image of poverty. Golden-blonde streaks were barely visible in her long, tangled, matted mouse brown hair, and her warm chocolate-caramel eyes betrayed fear, but also hints of loneliness, anxiety, confusion, and hunger.
Trying his best not to intimidate her much more than he already had, he began the light and friendly version of a suspect interrogation. "Are you the one behind the alchemical repairs and decorations that have been seen around town?" he asked, sympathy and kindness in his eyes and a smile on his face as he stepped forward. Taking two steps back to compensate for the distance lost between them, the girl nodded.
"Impressive. It truly is amazing for anyone to achieve many of those feats, you know. Though I must say, what's even more surprising than a child like you performing those feats is that you are in such a condition. You could easily transmute a sum of money for yourself, or, more legally, make a living using your alchemy as a service to others. Have you done that?"
The girl, who had been staring wide-eyed at him ever since his startling entrance, shook her head. Something in her manner told him that she was being completely honest; perhaps her fear of him was the cause for this, but at the moment that was impertinent.
"What is your name?" Roy asked, quickly crossing the distance between them and kneeling before her, so that they were at eye level, before she had a chance to react and pull away much farther.
A quiet voice, which was surprisingly mature while still having the tone of a child, answered shakily, "My name is Iris."
"How old are you?"
"I'm ten years old."
"I see. I'm Colonel Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist," he declared proudly; he remembered a moment too late that he should be keeping his ego in check around this shy girl.
"A State Alchemist with the rank of Colonel? I see, so you're not just the average Major-ranked State Alchemist, then," Iris mused, "A fact that you seem rather proud of, considering the decorated uniform and ostentatiously polished chain of the signature pocket watch."
Despite the lack of manners she had just displayed, the Colonel was pleasantly surprised by the girl's large vocabulary. Poverty-bred flaws aside, which mostly affected her attitude, he realized that he very well could be speaking to an alchemic genius, one that could soon become the next alchemic child prodigy, after Edward Elric, of course. Two prodigies becoming State Alchemists in two consecutive years seemed an interesting prospect, and he made the decision to try and make that prospect a reality.
"Iris," the Colonel began, trying not to make his words come out in a rush, "I know this may seem strange, and that the urgency is quite an imposition on you, but would you like to take this year's State Alchemist exam? I can try to arrange an exception for the age limit, and provide the space and materials for studying."
A small smile blossomed on Iris's face. "I will accept your offer, Colonel," she told him gratefully.
The Fuhrer was obviously and exuberantly ecstatic at the Colonel's proposed candidate, and, just as he did with Edward Elric, readily allowed Iris to apply. In order to study for the exam, she went to the estate of one of the few female State Alchemists, Kana Sakuragawa, known as the Obsidian Alchemist. Tall, with kind gray eyes and straight hair that matched her title, the Obsidian Alchemist became a sort of mother figure for Iris during her period of studying, which was slightly less than a year. In fact, she became the only mother figure, for there was a strange quality to the girl, which was discovered on her first day at the estate. It was at dinner, after Iris had pored through a book and a half of the enormous library, and had ten pages of notes to prove it. Kana had told her some interesting stories of her life, mostly focusing on her tales that related to alchemy. When it was Iris's turn to tell her life story, she had an unexpected answer.
"I'm sorry, Kana-san, but I have not that much of a life story to tell. I mean, I'm sure that my life was interesting and all, but for some reason, I have no memory of it. Besides my knowledge of alchemy and this," she held up a small pendant at her neck, "I have no proof that I existed before my life in the slums, which started about three years ago."
Kana just looked at her sympathetically, and said "I see, so you have lost your memory…is that why you want to become a State Alchemist?"
"Yes, my main reason for becoming a State Alchemist is to regain what I have lost—in this case, that means researching why I lost my memory, and finding a way to regain them."
"The military probably is the only way to fund such research, and I've never heard of anything like it…Iris, it is quite difficult to do work that is unprecedented."
Iris smiled. "I know, but somehow, I think I can manage just fine."
After that first day, Iris became immersed in her work. She read steadily through Kana's gigantic library, creating page after page of notes, until her notes alone could be easily mistaken for a particularly white-colored and thick tome. She barely ate or slept to achieve this much; she was pouring as much effort as she could muster into studying. The months passed, the library was being increasingly filled with the 'already read' section, leaving fewer and fewer books in their original places on the shelves. Finally, it was time to stop studying and take the first third of the real thing.
The exam had been postponed, due to an incident near Ishbal that the military had to investigate. Due to that, Iris had an extra week to review her notes, and realize that the date that her muddled mind had declared as her birthday would also be the date of the last leg of the State Alchemist exam, if she got that far. The extra week passed, and the exams began.
All nervousness and doubt in the shy girl's mind were erased when she entered the examination room. From his spot near the front of the room, Colonel Roy Mustang saw in her chocolate eyes a combination of determination and confidence; the exact combination had been present in the eyes of a blonde boy one year ago, as he and his brother sat down to take the exam. The pencil in her left hand could barely be seen as her hand moved like a rocket, calculating, drawing, and writing every answer as it came to her mind. Though her hand felt like it was going to disintegrate halfway through, she pushed on, utilizing the remaining two hours to write at a slower pace. She barely finished at this rate, but she answered all of the questions on the one-thousand question exam. When she arrived back at Kana's house, she was exhausted, and the Obsidian Alchemist soon found her fast asleep on her bed. That evening, the letter came to the doorstep stating that Iris had passed the first part of the exam, and cited when she was to report to Central Headquarters for the second, which happened to be around noon the next day.
Iris walked to the center of a dark room, where a spotlight soon afflicted her with temporary blindness. Her eyes adjusted quickly, revealing a tripod stool within a transmutation circle, which should have not been able to stand. She was told to sit down on it, and so she did.
"Why do you want to become a State Alchemist?" a voice from the front of the room inquired. It was a simple question, with only one small answer needed: a good reason to want to become a State Alchemist. Iris had pondered this since the day she had accepted to apply for the exam, and she replied with her well thought out answer.
"There is an equation in that needs to be balanced, so that the equation of the world, too, can be balanced."
She winced as she said her answer—although it had seemed like a fine answer before, now, in front of these military officials, it sounded cheesy and incompetent, overall turning into the worst response ever. Nevertheless, when she got home after a walk around the streets, there was a letter waiting for her, congratulating her for making it to the final part of the exam.
The final leg of the State Alchemist exam took place in a secluded area just outside of Central, where the final candidates found themselves in what seemed to be the edge of a forest, with a stream running through and out of said forest. Among the ten other men, Iris seemed nearly invisible, shrinking back into her shell as quickly and as much as possible. The observation panel included the Flame and Obsidian Alchemists, Lieutenant Hawkeye, General Hakuro, and the Fuhrer himself. The Flame Alchemist explained that what they had to do was show off their alchemical skill, by creating something with the materials provided. All of the candidates seemed eager to go except for Iris, who was clearly fine with going last. From her psychological shell, she watched with interest the feats of the other contenders.
The first man, a short, gaunt, man, drew a quick but complex circle on the ground near the stream. Activating the circle, a geyser of water formed into a sculpture of ice, which was the spitting image of himself. Colonel Mustang's comment was "nice detail, but one Armstrong is more than enough."
The second man went to the forest, alchemically cutting three trees down. These he made into a huge arch, covering the entire area in shadow. Not yet finished, he felled more trees and added them to the mix, making his finished product an ornately adorned torii. Mustang was impressed by the size and detail, but it had taken close to ten minutes to achieve, and the creator was exhausted.
A clay pot with a dancing vine, resembling a charmed snake with cell walls, was created by the third candidate, leaving Iris and seven others to show off their abilities. A spire of earth, a dancing ring of flame, a square patch of heavy, artificial fog, a floating ribbon of water, a pyramid of solid rock, a crack in the earth, and a giant glass bowl made from creek sand brought Iris's turn to the present.
Looking around a little uncertainly, Iris's hand went to the locket at her neck. As she had explained to Kana, the one remainder of her unknown past was also her reason to go on, to find out what her past was. She could feel the hole inside of her mind and heart, the hole that ate through her soul, and the locket made her feel what it would be like without the hole. The complete soul seemed comforting, nice, as though it were the ultimate answer to her problems, which was a very good goal to achieve. However, the lesson that nothing came easily was also easily remembered, as she had many times tried to alchemically open the locket. Unfortunately, each time, the locket refused to budge; whether she tried to cut a hole in it, simply unhinge it, whatever she did, it never worked.
A slight creak, barely audible to the average human ear, but quite clear to her sensitive ears, made her turn, facing the torii. It took her a mere second to realize the horrific truth about the creak: it was the first sign that the alchemic masterpieces of all of the other candidates were falling apart!
Keeping her rising panic under control, she thought quickly and logically:
' i What should I do? I could probably deconstruct all of this, but even at my fastest pace, the complex circle that I'd need to do this big of a job would take too long— /i '
All thoughts and sound halted; indeed, time seemed to stop as an image flashed into her mind.
"A gate?" She thought that she had spoken, but no sound came out, except to her ears. She was standing in a yellow-white niche in the timeframe, with a strange, intricate gate standing before her. Although Iris somehow knew this was somewhere between a memory and a dream, she still felt the confusion, fear, pain, and sadness as the doors creaked open. In an instant, the knowledge of everything—the entire mass of knowledge itself—was being poured into her head. She was numbers, symbols, images of places, people, and a number of things, and then she saw what they were called, what they were made of, and everything to know about them that could possibly be known. She saw the infinite amount of things, with the infinite amount of facts and theories about them, and she knew everything to ever know. The Gate seemed to be saying to her "This is a level of knowledge only attainable if you come within," and so, several small, black hands reached out to her.
Iris was tempted to reach out to the black hands, but then the fuzzy edges of the memory reminded her that this wasn't really happening, and that she had the knowledge that she needed right now. Snapping out of her memory, she noticed that not even thirty seconds had passed, in place of what had seemed like at least fifteen minutes, as was normal in the queer ways of memories. Also, strangely enough, the flash of the gate was the only memory that had come back; she tried for a split second to recall something, anything else, but to no avail. That was not the problem at hand, however. The alchemic masterpieces that were soon-to-be-monstrosities were.
Without clearly thinking about what she was doing, Iris clapped her hands together, building up a large amount of alchemic energy in a fraction of a second. The alchemic showpieces, not only the torii, began moving in a way that indicated that they were becoming highly unstable. Iris took her hands apart and slammed them on the ground.
A gasp had risen from the rest of the people present, as they first noticed the now very obvious creaking, diverting their attention from the girl who had been standing tensely for almost thirty seconds. A second gasp arose when a flash of alchemical light came, though no circle was there to herald its coming. Wide-eyed, soldiers and alchemists alike watched the newest feat of the small girl among them.
A huge Oriental dragon had appeared, snaking around the now dangerously swaying torii. The giant shrine gate was stilled, then suddenly, a sound like rushing water emitted from it as it decomposed. A second dragon materialized from the ribbon of water in the air, floating over to the fog patch, and increasing its mass by absorbing said fog. This water dragon surrounded the flaming ring, and doused it. Yet another dragon was made from the glass bowl, and this clear, glittering creature easily turned the stone pyramid to a parade of pebbles returning to the creek. Finally, the earthen spire sank into the ground, its returning mass sealing the crack in the earth.
After this mind-boggling display, what was even more amazing was that the alchemist who had caused it was not passed out from exhaustion. In fact, as Iris decomposed her dragons back into their original elements, she seemed hardly fazed by what she had done. She was pretty confident that her fatigue was not severe enough to inhibit her from performing for the test. Looking up at the stunned panel, she asked "What would you like me to do for the test?"
The inhabitants of the room stared at her. One of the candidates snapped "Haven't you done enough?"
"Stop showing off for points, kid," another added.
"Who said I was showing off? I don't know about you, but I'm here to take the State Alchemist exam," Iris snapped back.
Lieutenant Hawkeye thought this to be a good time to intervene, before an all-out alchemic battle broke out. She looked at the Obsidian Alchemist, who understood immediately, and nodded. The two women went to break up the fight: Hawkeye rounding up the annoyed candidates, using her gun as insurance that there would be no resistance, and the Obsidian calmed Iris down from her near-explosive state. It was at this time that the Fuhrer spoke up.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that it goes without saying that this exam is over; all of the candidates have gone," he said, "You may all go home now."
Two days later, Kana told Iris that she was going to Central Headquarters, and she wanted the younger girl to come with her. On the way, she explained that today was the last day that the military would allow her to officially board at the Obsidian Estate. When Iris asked why, all Kana did was smile, shake her head, and say "It's the way of the military."
Upon their arrival at Central, Kana went off somewhere, instructing Iris to go to Colonel Mustang's office. Having been to the Colonel's office once before, Iris, by some miracle, did not end up completely lost. Instead, she made a left instead of a right at the final hallway, and would have found herself at a dead end halfway across the building, had she not had the help of Breda, Fallman, Fuery, and Havoc, who were doing some strange game in the hallway, which included running into each other with their eyes closed. Havoc had cheated, and was sitting one round out, when he noticed the now slightly-confused girl walking down the hallway.
"You heading for the Colonel's office?" he asked knowingly.
"Y-yeah," Iris said, surprised to find that there was life in the hallway.
"You made a wrong turn should have made a right at the end of the last corridor. Just go straight back the way you came, his office is all the way at the end on the right," Havoc said, with Breda, Fallman, and Fuery blindly nodding, their eyes still closed from the game.
Five minutes later, Iris sheepishly knocked on the door to the Colonel's office.
"Come in," came the Flame Alchemist's voice.
Iris entered a little hesitantly. "Kana—the Obsidian Alchemist said that you wanted to see me, sir?" she asked, damning her voice for getting high and squeaky at a time like this.
"Yes, I just thought you ought to know that the Fuhrer has submitted your title," the Colonel told her.
"Title..?" Iris said, comprehension steering clear of her mind.
"Yes, your State Alchemist title. You passed. Congratulations," the Colonel said, a little impatience heard in his voice.
"O-oh, I did?" Iris stammered, surprised.
"Yes, you did," the Colonel said, handing her the official notice, "read it, it has your title."
With the Colonel looming over her shoulder, Iris broke the seal, took out the piece of paper, and read it. A small smile crept on her face when she saw her new title.
"The Shadow Alchemist," Iris said, savoring the tone of the name.
"Well, Shadow, you are to report here at oh-nine-hundred hours tomorrow," the Colonel smiled, "and I will have your first mission ready for you."